Lautern defeated 1:0

Leverkusen against Kaiserslautern LIVE from 8pm

One-legged or not - Leverkusen are double winners in Germany!

(Bild: AFP)

Bayer Leverkusen have won the double in German soccer for the first time ever! The Werkself lived up to their role as favorites on Saturday in the DFB Cup final against second division side 1. FC Kaiserslautern with a 1:0 victory and were able to celebrate once again after the first championship title in the club's history. Leverkusen's only previous triumph in the Cup came in 1993. Granit Xhaka (17) was the match-winner in the sold-out Berlin Olympic Stadium. 

It remained exciting right to the end in front of 74,322 spectators, partly because Leverkusen's Odilon Kossounou was shown a yellow card in the 44th minute. The favorites were able to put their 3-0 defeat in the Europa League final on Wednesday, which ended a run of 51 unbeaten competitive matches, behind them. At the celebrations in Leverkusen on Sunday, two objects of desire can now be presented to the surely thousands of fans.

The champions' second goal was more in the air
Midfield leader Xhaka provided the big highlight before the break, his left-footed shot from around 20 meters landing right in the corner. Shortly before the break, Kossouno was rightly sent off after an unfortunate kick against Boris Tomiak. That raised the underdogs' hopes of a surprise and they almost equalized in the 62nd minute. Lukas Hradecky prevented it with a brilliant save from a shot by "joker" Ragnar Ache (62'). Otherwise, however, a second goal from the champions was more in the air.

No sense of achievement for coach Funkel
Jeremie Frimpong passed the goalkeeper but failed to finish and his pass found no takers. Immediately afterwards, Amine Adli did not miss much with a shot (both on 75 minutes). As a result, coach Xabi Alonso's team had to tremble until the final whistle. However, Kaiserslautern had only ever won the DFB Cup in 1990 and 1996, the sixth time they had lost a final. For coach Friedhelm Funkel, there was no sense of achievement at the end, but the club's strong Cup season will be remembered for a long time to come.

The heavy use of pyrotechnics by Kaiserslautern supporters will also be remembered. They had already set off fireworks in the first half and the game was even interrupted for a few minutes shortly after the start of the second half.